Sacrifice
by Gengario
Summary: As Samus fights her way through Zebes, she begins to think about what made her chose this lonely life – and why her brief encounter with an infant Metroid has brought out emotions she thought she had permanently suppressed. (A novelization of Super Metroid)
1. Chapter 1

As Samus walked away from the Queen Metroid's corpse, she did feel a little proud of what she'd done. Only a little; that was as much pride as she ever let in, lest it get to her head. But right now she had good reason to feel proud. Thanks to her, the Metroids were no more. She was already more responsible than anyone else for completely wiping them out outside of SR388. And today, after a long and hard fight, she'd finally managed to exterminate every specimen of Metroid on their home planet. Samus knew that nobody else could have done this; that's why she was the very first person the Galactic Federation had turned to.

Mostly, though, anything else Samus might have felt was washed away by a flood of relief. And this was more than the typical relief that came with finishing a dangerous mission. The Metroids had been the source of many large-scale crises for years; now, finally, they were gone forever. The dark caves of SR388 lost all of the eeriness and tension Samus had come to associate with them. Now they were no more than a rocky path home.

That is, until she saw the egg.

Immediately, the caves became evil again. The large, round, slimy mass was almost certainly a Metroid egg. Samus's mission was less complete than she had assumed. When Samus found the egg, it was already wiggling around and cracking up. A few seconds later, it broke open and a tiny, newborn Metroid popped out.

_Just one left_, thought Samus. This had to be the last one; she'd seen the shells of other Metroid eggs, but they were all much closer to the Queen. Samus looked at her final target. This was the tiniest Metroid she'd ever seen. Fresh from the egg, it was almost totally transparent; the four fangs on its underside were barely developed. It posed no threat at all. As it floated in midair, Samus aimed her Arm Cannon at it. She would fire the moment it attacked.

The infant bobbed around in the air, as Metroids tend to do. Slowly, it flew closer to Samus. Samus continued aiming at it and waited for the lunge that never came. Instead, as soon as it got close enough, the infant Metroid… circled around her. Samus spun around, keeping her eyes and weapon focused on it. The Metroid flew in circle after circle, never coming any closer.

Among Samus's initial thoughts was: _is it blind?_ _(Or, since Metroids have no eyes, energy-blind?)_ She took a few steps backwards. The baby Metroid followed her. Then it began circling her again. No, it wasn't blind.

Now Samus was at a complete loss. This was almost surreal. What in the world was this thing doing?

"What do you think I am," Samus said, "your mother?"

{

_Why was the sky so full of black stuff? And why was everything covered in hot, orange stuff? Samus tried to remember the name for it. "Fire". But why was it everywhere? And where was everyone? It was all too much for a three-year-old girl to take in at once._

_There'd been so many loud noises, so many screams, and the ground had shaken so much. Now Samus just wanted to find her mom and dad so they could tell her what's going on and make everything normal again. Where were they? Samus looked around, but the only people she saw seemed to be sleeping. Why were they sleeping? Scared and confused, Samus began to cry._

"_Mama… where… where did you go, Mama? Papa… where are you?"_

}

Samus's confusion turned into unease. This shouldn't be happening. The Metroids were mindless, heartless killing machines. That's why she had killed every last one of them on this planet without hesitation or remorse. But this one…

Samus kept her Arm Cannon aimed at the infant as it slowly bobbed around near her. "Don't you get it?" she shouted. "I killed your mother and all of your siblings. I killed every one of your kind. If you want revenge, hurry up and attack me!" But, of course, it didn't.

This was probably the safest situation Samus had been in all day; despite this, she felt increasingly stressed and queasy. She wished this Metroid would hurry up and attack her so she could kill it. She needed kill it anyway, she knew… and yet, somehow, she couldn't bring herself to shoot. Every time she tried, memories of K-2L came rushing back to her, and suddenly all she could think about was how it felt to be the lone survivor of a genocide.

Samus decided to just continue walking back to her ship. Hopefully, the baby Metroid would come to its senses and attack her on the way there. Then she could kill it with a clear conscience.

It wasn't long before Samus hit an obstacle. The way forward was blocked by… debris. Apparently, it was the remnants of whatever the Queen Metroid had been eating recently. Samus considered her options: she could bomb it, she could blast it with missiles, or… Actually, she didn't need to do anything at all, because soon the debris collapsed right in front of her, clearing up the way forward. Confused, Samus looked around. Then she saw that the baby Metroid had latched onto the nasty pile of organs and exoskeletons. Whatever life was left in there, the baby had sucked it dry. It let go and followed Samus once more.

_Great_, Samus thought, _not only is it following me around, it's actually helping me. Now how am I supposed to kill it?_

}

The newborn Metroid followed Samus all the way to her ship. It wasn't a short trip. Not only did they have to climb through the tunnels all the way to SR388's sandy, desolate surface, but then Samus had to climb up and down a small cliff that stood between her and her ship. But now she was there, and so was the Metroid. Samus sighed and leaned against her wide, yellow gunship. She looked up at the endless stars. They invited her to come join them. Space itself was more of a "home" to Samus than anywhere else these days. But what would she do about the Metroid?

She couldn't leave it here; that would be disastrous. Not only would it make her whole mission a failure, but it would put the galaxy in danger – she came here to exterminate the Metroids for a good reason. That left two options: Samus had to either kill the Metroid or take it with her. For a minute, she tried to weigh each option. But soon Samus realized that it was useless to rationalize. One option had been mentally closed to her from the very beginning: she simply could not bring herself to kill this Metroid. She didn't know why; she'd killed all of the other Metroids without a problem. But not this one.

Whatever the reason, it was time to act. Samus jumped on her ship. Recognizing her, the hatch at its top opened automatically. Samus looked at the baby Metroid, who was bobbing around near her head. She made a beckoning gesture with her hand and then pointed to her ship's open hatch. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

}

Samus's gunship floated through space, unguided, as its pilot considered her options.

The Metroid was now in a small, yet sturdy, glass capsule. Samus felt bad about stuffing it there, but she couldn't just let a Metroid fly aimlessly around her ship. It could get itself hurt, or mess around with the controls by accident.

But what to do with it now? Directly telling the Galactic Federation about this Metroid felt like a very bad idea. To the bureaucrats and busybodies within, there was no difference between "All Metroids exterminated except one, which is in captivity" and "Mission failed". They had one box to check – the "All Metroids exterminated" box – and by God, they were going to check it. Samus wasn't sure what would happen if the authorities found out about what she did, but she knew she wouldn't like the results. At the very least, they would cut her payment, assuming they still gave her anything at all.

But she had to give this critter to someone. Someone who would know exactly what to do with it. Someone whom Samus could trust to keep everything under the Federation's radar…

Had the Federation been too hasty to order the extermination of _all_ the Metroids, without even leaving a sample to study? Samus had wondered this ever since the hatchling refused to attack her, forcing her to rethink everything she thought she knew about Metroids. Clearly, humanity's knowledge of Metroids was very incomplete. After all, the Chozo had supposedly created them to help the galaxy, yet she never learned how they were supposed to do this. Perhaps researching them would reveal something important.

Well, right or wrong, Samus had a sample now – so it'd be pointless to waste it. And Samus knew exactly who to give it to.

}

Samus had met the scientists at the Ceres Galactic Research Station several times in the past. She'd delivered specimens to them at their request, and they had helped make some adjustments to her suit at her request. She knew they'd be excited for the unique opportunity to study a living Metroid larva. Excited enough to keep it secret, at least temporarily.

Ceres itself was a huge, disk-shaped space station in the middle of an asteroid belt. Samus's gunship slowed down as it approached.

}

They're odd creatures, Metroids.

Nearly all known organisms must consume some form of organic matter in order to survive. Metroids consume no matter at all. If you compared an organism before and after predation by a Metroid, you'd find that it lost no mass. Yet the Metroid killed its prey somehow. What did it do? Do Metroids somehow suck pure energy out of their prey?

Back then, it was still a mystery – and the scientists at Ceres were more than excited about their opportunity to find out. The Federation didn't have to know just yet.

But if they were found out, Samus wasn't just going to let the scientists deal with the ensuing headache on their own. She planned to stay so that she could take full responsibility, if it came to that. Besides, Samus was curious to see what the research would reveal. So she rented out a room in Ceres and decided to stay for a while.

}

On Ceres, Samus got one more chance to interact directly with the baby Metroid. The scientists were intrigued by Samus's account of how the Metroid behaved upon hatching. The lead scientist, Dr. Holzer, set up an experiment that put Samus and the Metroid together in an empty room. Samus could see and hear the researchers behind a glass wall.

It had only been a day since Samus left SR388, so the infant Metroid hadn't grown much. Like all Metroids, it had three nuclei inside its round, translucent membrane, which had a greenish tint; it had four fangs near the mouth on its underside, two of which were larger than the other two between them. In fact, other than its size, it looked exactly like the creatures Samus had come to detest. So why did it almost seem… cute? As Samus watched it swerve back and forth in front of her, she couldn't help but smile a little. And Samus very rarely smiled.

Four horizontal tubes slid out of the wall. Each tube had a hole near the end, inside of which was a creature. They were Geemers: round, insect-like creatures with very spiky backs. They had somehow come to inhabit several planets – probably by laying eggs in the ships of travelers. These blue Geemers were clearly being held in place and were struggling to break free.

For the Metroid, it was feeding time. Immediately it latched onto the leftmost Geemer and began sucking.

"Tell it to stop," Dr. Holzer said through a speaker.

This was all part of the experiment, so Samus complied. "Stop it!" Samus said in a stern tone. Although she expected it would happen, it was still a surprise to see the Metroid stop draining the Geemer on her command. It floated back over to her and gave a faint screech.

Samus could see the scientists whispering to each other beyond the glass. Then Dr. Holzer's voice came through again: "Tell it to drain the Geemer on the far right."

She did; and once again, the Metroid complied. That settled it: this Metroid would do pretty much anything Samus asked of it. Now Dr. Holzer explained a theory that Samus had been entertaining since she found the infant.

"Well, Samus, it seems you were right. We were skeptical at first, but from what we can tell, this Metroid really does believe you to be its mother. We can only speculate, but perhaps Metroids know to follow the Queen Metroid's guidance from the moment they are born. Of course, when this one was born, there was no Queen Metroid; if what you told us is true, it sounds like you were the only life form of any significant power present. Since Metroids can only sense the energy in their surroundings, it's no stretch to conclude that when this one was born, it immediately imprinted you in its mind as its mother."

Samus stared at the tiny creature as it finished sucking the life out of the Geemer. It circled around her now, ignoring the other Geemers. A range of emotions passed through her and she didn't know what to make of any of them. How does one react when an orphan thinks you're their mother and cannot be convinced otherwise? What if you'd killed that orphan's parents yourself? Samus almost felt sick to her stomach. Perhaps the mission to SR388 had overstressed her. She just needed some time to rest – and to think.

}

Samus stayed at Ceres for a full week. She talked openly with the researchers and got to know many of them. Yet, when alone, she found that she spent much more time thinking about the baby Metroid than any of the actual humans aboard. It was odd, yes. But the people she talked to all knew where to draw the line; they didn't intend to get too personal. The Metroid, though it couldn't talk, had no line. It barged right into Samus's life without asking. The little circles it flew around her, the innocent screeches it made, the way it pressed against its containment tube every time she was near – it all made much more of an impact on Samus than any words spoken to her for many, many years.

Part of it was how easily Samus could see herself in the infant. Both were the lone survivors of an assault on their home planet. Both were taken away from their home planets at a very young age to be raised by another species. But this time, the species raising the survivor was the very one that had killed off its kin. Logically, Samus knew that she did the right thing when she exterminated the Metroids on SR388. The Space Pirates – and others – had used the powerful creatures for evil ends too much to tolerate. And anyway, despite this infant's behavior, Metroids weren't anything like humans in terms of intelligence. Allowing the Metroids to live would not be worth the havoc they would cause. Samus knew all of this – yet, somehow, she couldn't help but feel queasy every time she saw the infant Metroid and thought back to her mission on SR388.

On Samus's last day on Ceres, the researchers excitedly told Samus what they had found. It couldn't have been better news.

Metroids do, as suspected, seem to suck pure energy out of their prey. The research also proved that they could directly _give_ energy whenever they wished. But that wasn't the amazing part. Metroids, it turned out, are the most efficient distributors of energy ever discovered. If a Metroid sucked all of the energy out of one host, and then gave it to another, no energy at all would be lost in the transfer. In fact, it was possible that some energy was _gained_ in the transfer – but this was so incredible that the scientists had a hard time believing it without further tests. It would only make sense if Metroids could somehow drain a type of energy not yet known to humankind and convert it to a more observable form.

The news excited Samus for a number of reasons. There was no telling how great an impact these results could have on galactic civilization. But further research was necessary first. And that meant keeping the baby Metroid alive – and, hopefully, on Ceres. Samus knew now that she had done the right thing, and that it was not likely to be undone anytime soon.

The Ceres researchers concocted a plan. Obviously, they would have to reveal the existence of the last Metroid eventually. But according to their story, Samus _did_ kill all of the Metroids on SR388 – and brought a _dead_ sample back for study. From this, the researchers found their amazing results and, supposedly, cloned a living specimen in order to learn more. This way, both Samus and everyone on Ceres were in the clear, legally. The Federation might make some disapproving noises about cloning a Metroid, but given the circumstances, they were unlikely to be upset about it.

And so, after a week, Samus got back in her gunship and left Ceres. Everything seemed to be going well, and her little "specimen" seemed to be in good hands.

}

The last Metroid was in captivity. The galaxy was at peace.

Peace – what a strange concept. Samus had fought for it all her life, and suddenly, here it was, waltzing around like it had never left. Absolute peace was impossible, of course, and Samus knew that hers was a job that would never be finished. But the Metroids were gone and the Space Pirates were weaker than they'd ever been. Samus Aran, the now-famous galactic warrior, had almost singlehandedly created peace in the galaxy. For once, she didn't bother to hold the pride back.

Samus's ship sped through space toward the nearest post-office, where she planned to find a new bounty. In the meantime, Samus's thoughts wandered back to her "baby", the infant Metroid. Like it or not, there was no persuading this thing that Samus wasn't its mother. It might think this for the rest of its life. What was that going to be like – worrying about this thing for years to come?

Because, against her better judgment, Samus did worry about it. It was safe at Ceres now, but so much could go wrong. What would the Federation want with it? What would they do to it? Samus tried to remind herself that she shouldn't care, that Metroids aren't intelligent beings. Nonetheless, the picture that kept penetrating her thoughts was of the infant Metroid trapped and tortured in some laboratory, screeching for its mother…

There, out in space, Samus did a very rare thing: she made an irrational decision. She decided to protect the infant Metroid through any means necessary. She was the reason it was alive, the reason its relatives were dead, and the reason it was now being studied in a lab. She felt responsible for making sure it never passed into the wrong hands – no matter what. She knew it was an irrational decision. That didn't stop her from making it.

But Samus wasn't too worried. All she expected to do was check in on the Metroid every once in a while to make sure everything was going smoothly.

Then she got a distress signal. It was from the Ceres space colony.

}

Upon arriving at Ceres, Samus walked swiftly, but cautiously, through the port. She got to the stairs and jumped down each flight. She dare not use the elevator in an emergency – even if she wasn't sure what this emergency was. Her attempts to contact Ceres had failed. That was a very bad sign.

Samus got to the central office of the research station. She opened the door and looked in. The entire room was covered in blood and bodies. Among these decapitated bodies were Dr. Holzer and all of the other scientists she'd talked with over the past week. Now she could never talk to them again.

The first thing Samus felt was anger. But she had to hold it back. There was no time for anger, or shock, or mourning. Samus had to focus entirely on one thing right now: finding out what caused this. She looked all around the room, but nothing moved. More cautious than ever, Samus walked through the room and into a hallway.

She saw a few more bodies in the hallway. Not a single gun wound. Instead, every corpse looked like it had been clawed and sliced to death. Samus didn't have time to ponder what this meant. After surveying the hallway, she moved on to the main laboratory – where the infant Metroid was being held.

Or, rather, had been held. The glass tube that had contained the Metroid was now shattered and empty. More dead scientists lay around it. Once again, there was no other sign of life here. The humming of the machines felt so out of place when only a single visitor was around to hear it.

Samus would have felt panicked were it not for the intensity of her focus. She walked into another hallway. More dead bodies, but nothing else. She jogged to the small room at the other end. The floor was slightly lower in this room, which was surrounded by huge windows that looked out into space. The room was mostly empty – except, in its center, for the little glass cylinder that held an even littler Metroid.

Samus jumped to the ground and stared at the infant. The relief came and left so quickly it was as if she never felt it. Samus knew that nobody would steal such a valuable specimen and then just leave it alone in the middle of a room, unguarded. Someone was hiding nearby. Samus could practically feel their presence…

And then, above the Metroid, a pair of yellow eyes appeared. Samus knew exactly to whom the eyes belonged even before the body appeared around them.

{

_Samus was trying not to be terrified, but it wasn't working. Before her stood a creature unlike any she had ever seen. And it was huge. Some kind of reddish-purple beast with enormous wings and a pointed beak stared at her. Its yellow eyes had no pupils; frankly, those eyes would be terrifying even on a much smaller animal. Samus felt herself shivering._

_One of those flat-faced people with the crab-like claws was talking. The winged beast turned its head away from Samus to listen. Those clawed things had been all over the place today, and Samus had no idea why, or why there were so many loud noises. She had no idea where her parents were, either. Samus heard the clawed thing call the winged beast "Ridley". Then Samus remembered something Grandpa Bird had told her: his people looked different, but their hearts were like hers. Maybe Ridley's heart was like hers, too. Maybe he could help her find her parents._

"_A-are you Ridley…?" Samus stuttered, trying to stay brave. "I-I'm… Samus… I'm th-three years old…"_

_Ridley was staring at her now. It took Samus every ounce of courage she had to not run away. "You're not scary… I'm perfectly fine… E-even if you look different… W-we can still be friends…!"_

_Ridley looked at her curiously. Samus's request had taken him by surprise; it took him a moment to respond. "Hmm… such a cute little girl. Sorry, but…" His face was changing as he talked, growing more menacing by the moment. "I'm afraid that's impossible! Because…"_

_He grinned, showing off his many sharp teeth, and suddenly his face was worse than anything from Samus's worst nightmares._

"…_You're going to DIE!" he screamed, and Samus screamed with him, but without any of his joy. Ridley opened his mouth, and Samus felt a wave of heat hit her as something yellow and glowing grew in his throat…_

_Through her screams and terror, Samus heard her mother call out for her. Surprised, Samus stopped screaming just in time to see her mother running towards her. Then the fireball in Ridley's mouth flew at Samus. Her mother jumped in the way, and it hit her instead. That was the last thing Samus saw for a while, because then everything became obscured by black fog…_

}

Ridley's body had always had a red tint, but now it was completely red. That, Samus supposed, must be the result of having been rebuilt over and over after his various defeats at Samus's hands. Yet here he was _again_, unfettered by his losses. Samus almost admired his tenacity.

Of course, they began fighting immediately; Samus and Ridley were deep into the "shoot first, ask questions never" phase of their relationship. But this fight was different. Samus couldn't give her eternal rival everything she had; she had to make sure no stray shots accidentally hit the infant Metroid. She fired her power beam at him, and avoided using missiles. At first, she expected Ridley to use this advantage against her; soon, however, she realized that he was holding back too. He spent most of the fight airborne, holding the Metroid in his arm-like front claws, and he mostly attacked with his tail. Well, of course he was protecting the Metroid – he was the one trying to steal the damn thing. In any case, both fighters were at their most timid.

This time, however, Samus didn't need to kill Ridley – only to get something from him. When she had an opening, she carefully aimed and fired a missile at Ridley's front claws. The pain and force made him let go of the Metroid's capsule, which came tumbling toward the ground.

Ridley dived, and Samus leapt, to catch the capsule. The chase lasted about one second. For a fraction of that second, Samus thought she had won. But Ridley's dive accelerated, and he stretched his hind limbs faster than a human eye can perceive in order to grasp the capsule. Then he flew away. Right through the large glass window, which shattered when he flew into it.

For a brief moment, Samus felt the vacuum of space pulling her in; then a metal shutter automatically sealed the broken window. Now she was alone in the ship. The Metroid was lost. And then an alarm sounded. And from every angle, Samus heard a computerized voice.

"EMERGENCY. SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

Ridley must have hacked into the central computer in the ship's maintenance room before she encountered him. He must have also given himself some time to leave before the self-destruct sequence started. His timing was perfect: it had begun the moment he left the ship. Now the floor shook, and loud noises – not just the screeching alarm – surrounded Samus.

She didn't have much time. Samus ran back the way she came. The colony was already falling apart, but things weren't too bad just yet; she had plenty of time to get back. As she backtracked, Samus saw the broken tube which had once contained the Metroid and had time to think about it. Of course the Space Pirates had seen Samus go directly from SR388 to Ceres. Of course this had aroused their suspicions and incited them to investigate, which of course led to their discovery of the last Metroid. And of course they then developed a plot to steal the Metroid as soon as Samus left Ceres for even a moment. Samus felt like an idiot for only now thinking of this. She felt guilty for allowing this to happen. But she had to hold back those feelings – and the many others competing for attention. She had a space station to escape from.

Samus got to the port, entered her ship, and blasted off just in time. By then, Ceres was really falling apart, and bits of the ceiling were falling to the ground. Once in space, Samus had a perfect view of Ceres as all of its detonators went off at once, blowing the space station up from the inside. She saw several flashes of light, and bits of metal flew every which way. Samus felt like a wound had opened in her heart. She knew so many of the people who lived and worked at Ceres. Now there was nothing left of them at all. Even their bodies were gone.

Yet even now, she _still_ had something more important to focus on. For her computers had detected another ship in the vicinity – and it was flying away. It could only be Ridley's ship. Samus made her own ship follow it.

Based on the trajectory of Ridley's ship, Samus tried to determine its destination. The answer was obvious – but so surprising that Samus tried again several times before she believed it. Yet there were no other possible destinations in that direction. Slowly, she accepted that she would once again have to visit the planet Zebes.

Several years ago, the most important and most dangerous Space Pirate base was located on Zebes. It had also been Samus's home once, long before that… but that was another story. Samus's original claim to fame was the mission wherein she – completely alone – had destroyed this base and killed the Space Pirate leader, Mother Brain. What was left there to go back to now?

To top the pain in her heart, the confusion in her head, and the sickness in her stomach, one more uneasy feeling came to Samus – a very bad case of déjà vu.


	2. Chapter 2

Samus didn't know where on Zebes Ridley's ship had landed. She would have to explore the planet to investigate. Her ship landed at its old resting place. The same place she had landed it last time.

Samus emerged from the hatch at the top of her ship. Acid rain poured down from the gray skies and onto the gray rock, where patches of green moss grew. This grey and green terrain surrounded Samus; jagged mountains covered the surface of Zebes until the fog hid whatever lay beyond. They were strangely shaped mountains; they leaned and bent and stuck out in all sorts of directions, and varied greatly in height.

This part of Zebes was called Crateria. It hadn't changed much. These same cliffs had felt safe and homely, once. Not last time. But last time they were encouraging; they gave her hope that her former home could still be salvaged, or at least avenged. Now they only seemed dark and foreboding, hiding mysteries Samus wasn't sure she wanted to solve. The acid rain was an appropriate welcome back to Zebes.

Samus knew exactly where to begin her investigation. She walked into cave beneath a nearby cliff. The acid rain stopped pounding on her helmet; now it was darker, but only slightly. She walked deeper into the cave until she found a blue, circular door. Even that was nostalgic. The Chozo had installed these doors into Zebes long before they had brought three-year-old Samus here. But the Space Pirates upgraded these doors after they took over… Samus shot the door and it dilated, allowing her to pass through a short metal tube. Once she was back out, the door re-closed behind her.

Samus walked further. The cave brought her deeper and deeper underground. Then she had to jump down, from platform to platform, each one covered in moss. Besides the rock and moss – and occasional door – there were also metal tubes and walls here and there. The architectural survivors of Samus's "Zero Mission".

Once Samus got deep enough, and went down through another door, she reached a completely artificial – and very familiar – room. Near the end of her "Zero Mission", Samus's defeat of Mother Brain had set off a self-destruct timer; for Mother Brain had controlled all of Zebes's environments, and with her suddenly gone, all hell broke loose. This room was an escape shaft – an extremely tall one. Back then, Samus had climbed it to escape the Pirate base before it could take her down with it. Now, she stood at its top, looking down, wondering what awaited her below.

The location of this shaft was slightly different before. This confirmed something Samus had wondered about. When she destroyed the Space Pirate base, it had drastically reshaped the caves in this part of Zebes. These caves may not be as familiar to Samus as they'd once been.

Samus fell deeper and deeper into the huge, metallic shaft, often landing on one of the many thin, blue platforms before jumping off again. Once at the bottom, she went through a door, remembering exactly where it led: to Mother Brain's lair. Last time, getting there hadn't been nearly this easy…

There it was: Tourian. The location of Mother Brain and core of the Space Pirates' empire – at least, it had been. It looked exactly like Samus remembered… well, sort of. She saw exactly where Mother Brain's tank had been held – but the tank and the brain were gone now. Samus looked up; there were the turrets – all of them inactive. And the long room contained several metal plates, all of them in pairs such that one was on the floor and another on the ceiling. These had held the last line of defense against Mother Brain, her Zebitite barriers – but the barriers were gone now, too. There'd also been lava back then, just for good measure – now, none. Everything was shaped exactly the same – but the metal was rusted and the room was totally empty. Samus wasn't sure whether to sigh with relief or recoil at the memories this place evoked.

Samus made her way across the room, investigating every corner. When she got to the other side, she felt that her worst suspicions were at least unproven and at best disproven. If the Pirates were back, surely they wouldn't have just let this old room be. But then why did Ridley bring the infant Metroid to Zebes?

Due to the reshaping of the caves, the next room held another surprise. It was an elevator room; the elevator only went down. Some dim lights were on, and the elevator was humming. It seemed to still work. Samus walked onto the elevator platform in the middle of the mechanical room. On a metal pole, a screen displayed an arrow that pointed down. Samus pressed the arrow, and down she went.

It was a long way down. Unfortunately, that gave Samus a minute to think. She tried to piece together why Ridley was here, and what that meant; but that's not where her mind wanted to go. It was stuck on the baby Metroid. She didn't like imagining where it might be, or what Ridley planned to do with it, but she couldn't push those thoughts away. In this confusing and uncertain visit, Samus knew only one thing for sure: she had to save her Metroid. But first, she had to find it.

The elevator landed. Samus looked around. This place, too, was very familiar. There was no mistaking the blue, rough, round rocks that made up the caves of Brinstar. In fact, Samus recognized this very spot. Early on in her Zero Mission, she'd found the morph ball upgrade near here. In front of Samus, the path was blocked by the very boulder she'd jumped over to reach this upgrade. She decided to jump over it again for old time's sake.

From the top of the boulder, looking down, Samus saw a spherical hologram atop a tall pedestal, which stood between two statue-heads. That was it – the morph ball. It must have regenerated. Samus wondered whether it had done so after she left Zebes or after she lost her morph ball ability. There was nobody around to ask. In any case, Samus didn't need this upgrade – she'd lost it once (or twice… or maybe even three times), but she'd gotten it back on SR388.

Samus froze in place when she saw what was up on the cave wall. A camera was built into the wall, exactly on level with her. It looked like a metal eyeball on a stick. Its pupil-like lens was looking right at Samus. She dropped to the ground. The camera's stare followed her.

On the one hand, the camera could just be leftover from the Pirate's last stay on Zebes. Samus didn't remember seeing it back then, though. And frankly, she didn't have a good feeling about this whole situation. Something else didn't seem to add up. The caves may have shifted after Mother Brain's destruction, but that wouldn't connect two previously unconnected elevator stops. Some_one_ would have had to do that. Yet still, the question remained: if there were Space Pirates here, where were they?

And where was her baby Metroid?

Samus shook her head. _It's not _my _Metroid_, she reminded herself. Anyway, if there was one place where it and the Pirates weren't, it was here. Samus poked around Brinstar for a short while longer, but soon she gave up. These caves were empty. It was time to get back on the elevator, go back to Crateria, and see what she could find out up there.

}

Right away, Samus knew that something was wrong. Only a few emergency lights had been on in the elevator room when she went down. Now, after coming back up, the place was brightly lit. Samus braced herself for the worst and opened the door.

It's a good thing she braced herself, or else she may not have ducked under a half-dozen laser beams the moment the door opened. Space Pirates were waiting for her.

Space Pirates loved to modify their genes and armor, so they looked different everywhere Samus went. But the Zebesian race of Pirates was a particularly proud one – with reason, given Zebes's central role in Space Pirates' glory years – and hadn't changed in a long time. A number of scaly, humanoid figures now occupied the ruins of Tourian. They had very long, two-sided claws at the end of each arm – like a crab's, but proportionally longer – and a gun between each pair of claws. Their heads were elongated and flat, with beak-like mouths filled with sharp teeth. Their gray bodies were about Samus's size. Their red eyes were filled with anticipation. Most of them clung to the walls, but one stood right in front of Samus.

Samus acted immediately. Her suit transformed, and as it did, she transformed – into a state halfway between matter and energy. Samus had become a morph ball so many times that she no longer even felt the transition (the first time she'd done it, as a child, the shock almost made her catatonic). Yet the Pirates had been aiming at a person, not a two-foot-tall, red and orange sphere; it took them a second to adjust. Samus used that second to roll between the legs of the Pirate in front of her, transform back into her normal form, and shoot that Pirate in the back with a missile. The Pirate collapsed. Unfortunately, this gave a couple other Pirates time to shoot Samus in the back.

Samus turned around and shot a missile all three Pirates in sight. They fell from the wall to the ground. These were very weak Pirates – the lowest of their ranks. Samus jumped forward, onto the first of many platforms between her and the door. Then two more Pirates fell from the ceiling to the second platform. Samus jumped over their laser attacks and fired away at them with her power beam. They collapsed and fell into the ditch below. Samus jumped over to the second platform and looked down. One of the Pirates was twitching; the other wasn't moving. She jumped down, landing on the rusted metal tubes that covered the whole room. She pointed her arm cannon at the surviving Pirate; she then walked until she was looking down at it. Though it was no longer moving, it was still conscious – the loathing in its eyes was clear proof of that.

The more Samus's adrenaline rush cooled off, the harder her brain got working. "Tell me what's going on here," Samus said to the Pirate, keeping her arm cannon inches from its head. "Why have the Space Pirates come back to Zebes?"

The Pirate laughed, and Samus had to hold back an urge to shoot it right away. "You really don't know yet? Oh, now this is a privilege! Do I really get to be the one who breaks the news to the Hunter about our new base?"

"What? A new base?"

It laughed again. "There's the shock I was hoping for! Yes, Hunter, we've rebuilt our Zebesian base. And this will not be like last time. There is nothing – _nothing _ – that compares to what we are doing now. Our kin from all over the galaxy are contributing to it, pooling our resources for it, so that it can be more than a base – it will the foundation of a new Space Pirate empire. Oh, and here's another surprise for you. Guess who's back on Zebes?"

_Ridley?_ Samus thought, but she chose to remain silent.

"Give up? C'mon, I'll even give you a hint. You've known her since you were just a little girl."

Behind her visor, Samus's eyes widened. "Mother Brain?"

"Bingo! And…"

"That's impossible! I killed Mother Brain – I killed her right here, in this chamber!"

The Space Pirate, who seemed to be enjoying itself despite its perilous situation, laughed again. "Man, this is fun! Yeah, yeah, you beat us last time. But it wasn't over then and it isn't over now. We've rebuilt Mother Brain, and she will lead us to…"

"Where? How?"

"I can't tell you _where_, idiot. But as for how – well, let's just say that even though the Urtragian Pirates lost Aurora Unit 313, they still kept the instruction manual."

Samus's body was vigilant as ever, but on the inside, she felt numb. This was an overwhelming amount of information to take in at once. Without thinking, another question came to her lips. "Where's the ba- the infant Metroid, where is it?"

"That's enough questions, Hunter!"

Samus heard the scuttling behind her, but she turned around too late. One of the laser beams whizzed by her, but the other one hit her right in the chest. She shot and killed the two Pirates who'd snuck up on her. The one she'd been interrogating sat upright and attacked her; she shot and killed that one, too.

Samus jumped back up to the platform and looked around. "Any more of you? Huh?" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "Show yourself! Come out and fight!"

Silence. That seemed to be all of them. But that didn't calm Samus down. She was tense. She was angry. And beneath all of that was a creeping sense of despair.

Automatically, Samus jumped back down to the dead Space Pirates to see what she could get from them. Her suit held itself together using a vast amount of energy packed tightly into tiny tanks. Some of that energy had been used up when the Pirates had shot at her. Luckily, this suit could suck the remaining energy out of the dead Pirates' armor to restore some of its own. Since her missiles were kept in a compact, energy-like state before being fired, she could replenish them using a similar method.

Samus did get to replenish her missiles, but unfortunately, only one Pirate had energy left to give, and it was only a little. The last Pirate Samus checked was the one she'd interrogated. Samus looked down at it. She'd almost been ready to spare it, too, before it attacked. Samus hadn't spared a Space Pirate in a long time. It was all but impossible now, really. The "Hunter" was so notorious among the Space Pirates that they all dreamed of being the one to take her down – and none of them would dare live with the shame of having let her go. Once they saw her, nothing short of death would stop them from fighting. And they had made an adjustment to their helmet; now it keeps them conscious until death, no matter how much pain they are in – so killing a Pirate is the only plausible way to defeat it.

Samus had tried to spare her Pirate opponents, once. When she was younger. As it became less plausible, she eventually gave up. Right now, however, she felt no desire at all to spare anyone. She was angry, and the more she realized what a total mess she'd landed in, the angrier she got. The Space Pirates had ruined her life at every single turn. She thought she had put a stop to that. Now they were doing it again.

_It never ends. It never fucking ends._

Samus got ready for battle as she opened the door and walked into the tall shaft.

More Space Pirates. Just as she suspected.

Samus rolled sideways to dodge the oncoming laser fire. "Goddamn it!" she yelled as she fired back. "When will you assholes leave me alone?"

{

_Something dove down at her. Samus didn't have time to see what; she only saw its scattered remains fall to the ground after her missile quickly tore it to pieces._

_It was so awful that Mother Brain was now in control of Zebes's wildlife. None of the animals here had wills of their own anymore. In essence, Mother Brain had already killed them and turned them into extensions of her own being. Her puppets. When Samus remembered this, it became easier to kill everything she saw without hesitation._

_It was a shame, yes. But Samus was done mourning for Zebes. Now she was finally doing something about it. And despite the danger, despite all the evil that had been wrought here, it was exciting. Samus had never felt more alive._

_She looked ahead. Further on in the cave was a green, metallic structure that seemed out of place in the blue, rocky caves of Brinstar. A yellow pit of lava surrounded the structure. And things were moving in the darkness, although from this distance Samus couldn't tell what. She knew only that they meant danger. And what had she come here for, if not for danger?_

_Samus smirked. A "Zero Mission", they had called this. They'd given her a zero percent chance of success. Maybe they were right. Somehow, it didn't make a difference to Samus, one way or the other. If she died here, she wouldn't have let her parents, or the Chozo, or the galaxy, down. She would have died fighting to end the same evil that had contaminated her life from the beginning – to make sure it never contaminated another life again. She hoped she could succeed. If not, maybe she could make it easier for someone else to._

_Her heart racing with anticipation, her mind focused as a laser, Samus walked into the unknown danger ahead._

}

One Pirate down. Two Pirates down. Samus dodged their attacks and fired and fired at them. But they just kept coming. There was no end. And each time yet another Space Pirate jumped down from the tall shaft above, Samus got angrier still. Angry that she'd been fighting these bastards her whole life and they were _still_ finding new ways to make her miserable. Angry that no matter how hard she fired, how much of her rage she siphoned into the act of pulling the trigger, she couldn't blast her way out of this nightmare.

Samus found herself surrounded by more than a dozen dead Space Pirates. She couldn't remember killing any individual one of them; she'd been too enraged to think straight. Now she was only slightly better. Killing them hadn't given her any satisfaction – in fact, the sight of their dead bodies made her sick. Worse yet, she knew that there would be more of them, and most of the others would be stronger. This unexpected mission was only beginning.

Samus jumped up the shaft slowly so that she could think. Space Pirates had come back to Zebes. They were putting all they had into this new base. That made the stakes of this mission higher than ever: it would either be the Pirates' last stand or their great comeback. Somehow, Mother Brain was back. And most importantly, they'd kidnapped her Metroid… No, that was far from the most important fact here. It just happened to be the fact that Samus's mind gave the most weight to.

What use did they have for a single Metroid? A chilling thought came to Samus: did they plan on cloning it? She forced herself not to think too hard about it. She'd find out eventually.

Finally, Samus got to the top of the shaft, shot the door above her, jumped through it, and went back to the natural cave. Fortunately, there were no more Space Pirates here. Unfortunately, that didn't mean Samus was safe. While she was gone, Crateria had come to life. Creatures of all sorts had crawled out of the soft soil of Zebes. Only Mother Brain could control so many animals at once. So the Pirate hadn't lied. She really was back.

A couple of blue Geemers slowly crawled back and forth along the cave walls; they wouldn't attack Samus until she got near. Nor would the Ripper she saw further up. Rippers were small, light-brown, and heavily shelled creatures that propelled themselves through the air like some sort of natural rocket; they tended to follow fixed paths, and right now Samus wasn't anyone near this guy's.

So, for the moment, Samus was safe. This gave her time to think – if she could only calm down first. It wasn't easy, but eventually, she forced her frustration and despair to back off, for the moment, so that her mind had room for more important things.

She'd come here to retrieve the Metroid. Now she understood that this was no longer the most important task: that spot was reserved for finding, and killing, Mother Brain. Even if she hadn't come here today, the Federation would have asked her to do it eventually.

The Space Pirates weren't idiots – well, not all of them. They would have known that "the Hunter" would come back for them. They would have prepared for it. Samus had to be prepared for the unexpected. She couldn't know what new treats the Pirates had cooked up for her.

If the Space Pirates had surprises in store for Samus, she'd better find some surprises for them, too. The fact was that Samus hadn't fully explored the depths of Zebes on her last mission. It was a vast and mysterious planet, and the Chozo had inhabited it for a long time. They'd left secrets here; their prophets had known that someday, one of them would need it. Or, at least, one of them via adoption. Samus had found many of these secrets the last time she came here, but certainly not all of them. Now she needed to find more. Especially if the Space Pirates were as invested in this base as she'd been led to believe. She needed a new edge on them.

So Samus decided to thoroughly explore the caves of Zebes this time. She'd leave no crevice uninvestigated, no path ignored.

To start off, now was a good time to take a good look around Crateria.

}

Her search of Crateria brought her in contact with a number of hostile, but weak, creatures. It took her through tiny passageways into an unfamiliar cave. It took her to a hallway, adjacent to that cave, made entirely of brick. And finally, in a room at the end of that hallway, it took her to a Chozo statue.

Samus knew what she'd found the moment she laid eyes on the brick hallway; it was too elegant a room, too beautiful, to be of Space Pirate design. The room and statue at its end were both predictable and familiar. It was always the same with these rooms. They were built like a fortress – not unlike Mother Brain's old fortress, though much smaller. A little, simplistic metal box built into the soil. And the sole inhabitant was always the same: a grey, beaked figure sitting against the wall, holding its arms out in offering.

The sight of the Chozo statue relieved Samus. It reminded her that there were still things the Space Pirates couldn't touch. That although the Chozo had left Zebes, a part of them was still here, resilient against all evil.

In the statue's hands was something small and round. Samus shot at it, and as she expected, it became enveloped in a bright light. Samus jumped on top of this light and became a morph ball. Soon, she felt her suit changing. Her suit is so much like a part of herself that it felt as if her limbs were being taken apart, adjusted, and put back on. But it was a sensation Samus was used to by now, and it didn't hurt. Hardware and software shifted in unison until the upgrade was complete.

Samus rolled off of the statue and unraveled from her morph ball form. Then she saw a notice on her visor, telling her what had been upgraded: her bombs. The tiny bombs that she could lay in her morph ball form. Now they'd be more powerful, and quicker to create.

She looked at the statue one last time. "Thank you," she said, and she was thanking it for more than just the bombs. Until she saw it, she'd forgotten that there was still good on this planet. Or in this universe.

She turned around. The door was closed – and gray. Normal, blue doors are blocked by an energy shield that can be broken easily with a power beam (originally, one was supposed to have a key to unlock it, but shooting it works just as well). Other colors represented more powerful shields. Gray meant there was no shield at all – just a titanium door. And it was locked.

_The hell?_ was Samus's only thought. Then she heard something behind her. Samus turned around, gasped, and backed into the door.

The Chozo statue was standing up.

{

"_Grandpa! Grandpa Bird!"_

_Samus finally found him; his broad, gray-white, feathered back was unmistakable. Old Bird turned around to face the panicked and confused nine-year-old girl. He smiled – an obvious attempt to reassure her, but Samus could see the worry in his eyes._

"_Samus? Is something wrong?"_

"_Grandpa, it's… it's that statue in the valley! I just saw… you won't believe me, but I just saw it walking!"_

_Old Bird laughed; the worry disappeared from his face. "Is that all? That isn't anything to worry about, Samus. I suppose it found a better place to stay and decided to move there."_

_Samus was so confused it was hurting her head. After a moment, she decided Old Bird must have misheard her. "It was a _statue_, though! And it was _moving!_"_

_Old Bird smiled and nodded. "Yes, yes, I understand. When you hear 'statue' you think of the slabs of stone that humans have carved. We Chozo only call our creations 'statues' because there's no better word for it; no human tongue has a word for what we create. You see, Chozo artisans don't solely focus on their statues' exteriors. They also put… a little bit of themselves inside."_

"_What? A little bit of themselves?"_

"_Yes, a little bit of their own spirit, you might say. So that the spirit of the Chozo may live on long after we've left this world. Isn't that the point of art, after all?"_

"_Um…"_

_Old Bird smiled and rustled Samus's hair. Samus blushed and grimaced; she hated being treated like a child._

"_Most of our statues serve a specific purpose," Old Bird explained as he removed his claw-like hand from Samus's head. "Some of them will help a lost traveler in need. Many hold on to a treasure, keeping it safe from thieves. Then there are the Torizo." His face became sterner. "Those are warriors, built as a last resort if something of ours needs protection. They may be beautiful on the outside, but they're the fiercest of guardians if you disturb them."_

_Samus's eyes grew large as a brilliant idea came to her. "Wait a moment… Grandpa Bird, I could train by fighting the Torizo! You said there were no sparring partners here besides the boring stuff Mother Brain comes up with. But…"_

"_Absolutely not," said Old Bird, and suddenly his gaze was harsh._

"_But…"_

"_Samus, if you fight a Torizo, only two outcomes are possible. One, the Torizo are built to be very powerful and would probably kill you."_

"_But I…"_

"_Two, if you survive, you would only do so by destroying the Torizo, and that is a sad outcome itself. Think about it. A noble guardian, gone. All the hard work that went into creating it, gone. A part of the Chozo's eternal connection to the universe, gone. Is that really what you want?"_

"_I… um. No." Samus looked down at her armor-clad feet. She was getting so tired of Mother Brain's robots. She really wished she could fight against something stronger._

}

Old Bird was right: the Torizo was tough. But not nearly tough enough for a fully-grown, fully-experienced Samus Aran. Soon, it was reduced to a pile of bird-like rubble at her feet.

Samus heard the door go _click_ behind her, unlocking itself. She barely noticed. She was staring sadly at the statue's head, which she had shot clean off of its body. "I'm sorry," Samus said to the broken statue, and immediately she regretted saying it. Words couldn't possibly express her regret; realizing this made the regret more real, somehow.

"Dammit," Samus whispered. Then, louder, as she slammed her fist into the wall behind her: "DAMMIT!"

The Torizo had done its job, defending the bomb upgrade. And out of desperation, Samus had become its enemy. Desperation forced on her by the Space Pirates.

No place Samus went was safe, it always seemed. But the past, her past with the Chozo, had been her sanctuary. No matter how terrible the outside world got, she could always close her eyes and go back there. In the open-eyed world, the Chozo statues proved that this past was real; they tied her to it. Her past was the one place she thought that no evil could reach. Now she'd been forced to turn against it, to fight it, to destroy a part of it. The Space Pirates had turned her own past against her. Their ability to ruin things had finally transcended time.

Furiously, Samus ran out the door and through the hall, ignoring all of the tiny winged bugs that flew at her. She didn't even feel it when they bit at her armor with their small, but sharp, fangs. None of that mattered right now. All that mattered was that she kill every single Space Pirate on this planet as soon as possible.

}

At the very least, she killed every single Space Pirate in her path. There were plenty, as it turned out, in a spiral staircase she found after running through Crateria. It was made of the same type of brick as the hallway near the Torizo; Chozo writings were etched on some of the walls, and the beaks of carved Chozo heads poked out near the ceiling. Several Space Pirates, in tough red armor, were waiting for her there. She killed all of them on her way down.

At the bottom of the staircase, the path forked. To Samus's right were caves that went yet deeper into the crust. To her left was a simple suspension bridge. She took a closer look at the bridge. It seemed to pass through a huge ravine – she couldn't see the ground beneath it, nor could she see any walls nearby. Only darkness surrounded it. Something about it intrigued Samus. She decided to see where it led.

As she walked, Samus noticed a faint glow ahead of her, from the other end of the bridge. When the bridge ended, and brought her to another rocky cave, the light was still too faint to determine what the source was. But she only needed to walk forward a little. Then she saw them.

Four golden statues, all attached to each other, forming a single golden sculpture. On top, a winged beast – Ridley. In front, a monster with an enormous stomach and comparatively tiny head – Kraid. Plus two others whom Samus did not recognize. Their eyes glowed dimly.

If this mission was anything like the last one, Samus knew why these statues were here. Last time, it'd only been Kraid and Ridley – the Pirates had found two more generals, it seemed. Mother Brain's lair was extremely well-protected. One could not get there without the consent of a few particular high-ranking Space Pirates; they were the only ones who could "unlock" their corresponding statue. This sculpture was, essentially, a locked door to the new Tourian. Of course, if any of these Pirates were to die, there'd be no use for their statue – so it would cease to function. Obviously, Samus wouldn't get far by politely asking these four to let her into Tourian. That left only one alternative.

Samus walked back to the bridge with four new targets in mind. Now all she had to do was find them.

}

The Chozo, at their peak, were perhaps the greatest civilization in the history of the universe. Were. Eventually, their numbers dwindled, their population aged, and as all things come to an end, so did the greatness of the Chozo.

As their extinction neared, the Chozo realized that they did not want to simply disappear and leave nothing to their successors. They saw it as their duty to create things – enduring things – to help make the future of the galaxy a peaceful and prosperous one. So they helped to create a Galactic Federation, uniting all spacefaring peoples in the Milky Way. And on Zebes, one of their many home planets, they created an artificial intelligence named Mother Brain.

Mother Brain pooled together all data collected by both the Chozo and the Galactic Federation. Before she was one of the greatest threats to civilization, she was considered one of its greatest achievements. The Federation and the Chozo never found a limit to what she could do; they gave her more and more tasks, and she completed them perfectly. She became fully in control of the Chozo's habitat on Zebes.

Mother Brain noticed how perfectly she completed all of the tasks given to her. She also noticed how chaotic, violent, and grim the universe outside was. Why were they giving her such a small amount of control, when the things she had control over were so much better than the things she didn't? Time passed, and her control increased, yet her perfection never waned – the sample size was so large now that, by her calculations, a conclusion was inevitable: she must be put in control of everything if the universe was ever to improve.

Control became an end, rather than a means. But she needed a means to that end. That's where the Space Pirates came in. She was a natural leader without a following; they were natural followers without a leader. They fit perfectly. Eventually they found each other, and the rest, unfortunately, is history.

The first child of the Chozo, Mother Brain, ended up with the Space Pirates, as did the Metroids she controlled. Their second child, Samus Aran, fought for the Galactic Federation and for that rapidly rising young race, humankind. Which would succeed the Chozo and become the next great galactic civilization? Everyone thought that this question had been answered years ago, when the second child killed the first. Everyone had underestimated the persistence of the Space Pirates.

}

Samus recalled her knowledge of Mother Brain as she walked through a very wet, slanted cave. It was full of tiny water puddles, and mushrooms – some of them huge, all of them with twisted stems – sprouted from these puddles. Several creatures tried to disturb her, but they were weak and she easily blasted them all away. She was so lost in thought that a powerful enemy would have caught her off-guard.

At the bottom of the sloped cavern was a door. Through the door was a room whose walls and floor consisted of wiry mesh, held in place by a series of long poles. When Samus looked down, she could see through the floor – only she couldn't really see anything. The chasm below had no visible bottom.

At the center of the room was a yellow, glowing circle. An elevator. Samus walked over to it, activated it with the push of a button, and waited. Then she descended. And as she went down, Samus was struck by a horrible realization: that this mission had yet to even begin.


End file.
